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Technical Note

The entire script with short description is attached for download. Additionally, we provide a test dataset, which we have used for further testings. The test dataset contains a single find from the Neolithic that was discovered in the Black Forest (Lais 1937: 40). This technical section is made to evolve! Please share your thoughts, requirements and suggestions regarding the described issues to Dr. Karsten Schmidt.

 

Distance relationships or does distance matter – calculating a non-isotropic spatial relationship by integrating human energy expenditure in terrain based estimations

– A seamless workflow for defining archaeological Site Exploitation Territories (SET) using the open source (geo-)statistical language R –

Ahlrichs, Jan Johannes1,2, Gries, Philipp4 and Schmidt, Karsten1,3,4
1 Collaborative Research Center 1070 ResourceCultures, University of Tübingen
2 Institute of Pre- and Protohistory and Medieval Archaeology, University of Tübingen
3 eScience-Center, University of Tübingen
4 Department of Geosciences, Soil science & Geomophology, University of Tübingen


Download: R-Script
Download: Description (PDF)
Download: Test materials

General aims

The team around E. S. Higgs took the view that comparative studies on the changing human-environment relationships in mobile and sedentary societies require an analysis of the land use potential of catchment areas of related archaeological sites (Vita-Finzi and Higgs 1970: 1; Higgs and Vita-Finzi 1972: 28–29; Foley 1977: 163; Bailey 1981: 99). Within the framework of SET, they did not only study the availability and usage of natural resources in the catchment area of individual sites, but also how economic strategies of prehistoric societies contributed to environmental changes and how they interact (Vita-Finzi and Higgs 1970: 5; Higgs and Vita-Finzi 1972: 27). The concept of SET and the site catchment analysis enabled archaeologists to determine the economic function of an excavated site through an in-depth analysis of all archaeological findings and the ecological as well as geographical environment (Higgs and Vita-Finzi 1972: 28; Jarman 1972: 725; Jarman et al. 1972: 61–62). Thus sites were no longer considered as isolated case studies but as part of an economic ‘system’ (Jarman 1972: 715; Davidson 1981: 21–23). Based on a comparative analysis of archaeological sites dating to different epochs and periods Higgs and his co-researchers were able to obtain general conclusions about long-term trends in human-environment relationships (Jarman 1972: 714; Jarman 1976: 546). The strengths of the concept were summarized by Geoff N. Bailey and Iain Davidson (1983: 88) as follows:

  1. Definition of a territory that was visited daily by the inhabitants of a site to deal with the subsistence.
  2. Analysis of the origin of natural resources that were recovered at archaeological sites.
  3. Reconstruction of the vegetation history of the vicinity of a site in order to assess the changes in the botanical and zoological data from the site.
  4. Reconstruction of the potentially available food for the inhabitants of a site and the subsistence strategies associated therewith.
  5. Reconstruction of the function of a site (permanently inhabited, etc.).
  6. Reconstruction of social and economic relations between sites within a regional settlement system.

[ Further information and detailed descriptions can be found in the download section ]

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